Remember I brought this up before? Every time I hear the media talk about something that I know about, I cringe at their errors. Now, what are they doing with things I know little about? The same stuff.

I agree. When I read or hear stories about matters I know about, the level of oversimplification and the volume of actual inaccurate claims is disturbing. And these are not the ideological issues, but straight-up matters of fact.

Part of it is aiming at the perceived audience, part of it is a low budget for actual reporting, part of it is the speed cycle of news and a big chunk is that most journalists lack a background in the subjects.

PBS and NPR usually do much better than the 24 hour news cycle folks-at least when they have a show that features a range of experts talking about what they know.

Gun bracelets would not be a great idea-after all, if someone can take the gun, they can take the bracelet. But the idea of a weapon keyed to a person is not a bad idea-especially for law enforcement. But, I would not want to rely on the technology until it was proven-I would not want my gun to “crash” on me and refuse to fire when I needed it.

Mike, do you agree that Obama knows the 77 cents business is a fallacy?

The proposition that the statistical disparity in pay touted by Obama results from employment discrimination has been examined and disproved many times over. The great Thomas Sowell addressed it in chapter 3 of Economic Facts and Fallacies (summarized in the video we posted here). Obama’s line on women’s pay falls into the category of “fallacy.”

Obama knows his line is a fallacy, yet he can’t resist. It is useful to him. It helps him take advantage of women who don’t know better for his own narrow partisan political purposes.

How many times are we going to have to crush the female pay disparity myth? Bottom line is that females don’t stay at the same full-time jobs for as long as men do, therefore don’t accumulate the same amount of pay increases. Those who have the same amount of time in the same jobs make the same money. How many lies can the left build its empire on? But the low information voters keep them afloat and winning.

“It’s over, it’s done. If you listen to fools, the mob rules.”~Black Sabbath

Shouldn’t Mike be able to see through this cynical ploy?
Essentially my point over the last what, 3-4 years now? Someone with a PhD from THE Ohio State University should know better, especially if he’s to be teaching on the public dime. Especially at FAMU.

Of course, our POTUS could also use some self-awareness. FWIU, the women on the White House staff make only 88% of what the men make. The disparity on GOP staffs is supposedly a good bit lower. Also found this Twitter battle amusing:

Why the “ifs”? The statistics have repeatedly proven the 77 cents figure wrong, just as the 67 cents figure was wrong in the past. If a GOP politico was lying like this, hell even when GOP politicos are telling the truth, Mike does not give the benefit of doubt. Never, ever, ever admit a damn thing. It’s the way of the beast.

“The three men ended up working like dogs, using all the skills developed by trial and error in their first few weeks – building a hut, fish, trying to get the women to forage. The women continued to bitch and sunbathe. The three women who were sent to the men’s island were delighted – food, shelter and plenty of male attention was freely available. They too continued to sunbathe.”

If I studied German in school I’m sure no one would find it odd for me to have Nazi propaganda posters in my family’s home. Not at all if I even happened to be the spokesman for a GOP president. It would be terribly wrong for anyone to presume I had fascist leanings, tendencies, or sympathies. Or to say that it was any reflection on my boss. It would not be creepy at all if those Nazi posters were in the background of a photo of my wife and children cooking breakfast. A photo published in a major political magazine read by the powerful in Washington. Nothing odd about that whatsoever.

The fascination of the left with communism is itself fascinating to me. The funny thing to me is that compared to the communists of old, the new breed are mere dilettantes. To me, that makes them even more despicable.

“As of June 21, 2013, Yahoo news reported Carney has responded in some variation of “I don’t know” over 1,900 times since his first briefing.[8] It was further reported Carney had somehow dodged a question approximately 9,486 times.[9]

On November 21, 2013, a majority of the news outlets covering the White House submitted a joint letter to Carney complaining about the lack of access provided to reporters.[10] The letter specifically addressed several instances where the Press Corps was told a certain event was private, yet the White House allowed White House Photographer Pete Souza exclusive access to the event.[10] On December 12, 2013, Carney was confronted by most of the White House Press Corps for the unprecedented lack of access to the President during a routine news conference.[11] During the discussion, the reporters became increasingly frustrated and often talked over Carney.[12] The White House Press Corps noted that while President Obama promised a more transparent administration, CNN’s Brianna Keilar notes “anyone here can tell you there’s less access than under the Bush administration.”.[11] Carney proceeded to cite the rise of internet journalism for making photojournalists obsolete, but promised the White House would do everything it could to rectify this problem [13]”

The fraud that is our “news” media. From one of their (once) own. Where’s the outrage? Oh, yeah. Only on Fox and talk radio and WSJ. Those biased people. Certainly nothing for academia nor so-called philosophers to ponder.

One month ago. long-time investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson left CBS amid rumors that she had grown frustrated with the network stifling her investigations. Thursday night on Bill O’ Reilly’s Fox News program she confirmed those rumors. “There is unprecedented, I believe, influence on the media, not just the news, but the images you see everywhere. By well-orchestrated and financed campaign of special interests, political interests and corporations. I think all of that comes into play.”

After introducing his guest, O’Reilly asked Attkisson about her investigation into the Fast and Furious gun-running scandal.

The former CBS reporter asserted that she began to make inroads into the story but had to drop it:

Attkisson: I found out that we had to quit pursuing the story more or less due to lack of interest well before we found answers to a lot of questions. Including what about all the other cases besides the one you know as Fast and Furious that were also using similar strategies to transfer weapons down to Mexico. And how did this, if at all, play into a strategy the United States may be using to draw support or give support towards one of the cartels in Mexico against one of the others much like they had done in Columbia and other places.

O’Reilly: Playing one off against the other. You said something interesting that you had to abandon the story for lack of interest. Can you clarify that?

Attkisson: It just came to be that, I don’t think on the viewers’ part, but on the people that decide what stories go into the broadcast and what there is room for, they felt fairly early on that this story was over when I felt as though we had barely begun to scratch the surface. They didn’t ask me what was left to report. They decided on their own the story was done.

Yeah, I saw that. I haven’t quite bought into the whole red pill/dark enlightenment thing, what with ts over-emphasis on race, odd mix of darwinian evolution and romanticism, and in some cases, outright fascism. But their idea of “The Cathedral” is looking more and more valid.

“The Cathedral — The self-organizing consensus of Progressives and Progressive ideology represented by the universities, the media, and the civil service. A term coined by blogger Mencius Moldbug. The Cathedral has no central administrator, but represents a consensus acting as a coherent group that condemns other ideologies as evil. Community writers have enumerated the platform of Progressivism as women’s suffrage, prohibition, abolition, federal income tax, democratic election of senators, labor laws, desegregation, popularization of drugs, destruction of traditional sexual norms, ethnic studies courses in colleges, decolonization, and gay marriage. A defining feature of Progressivism is that “you believe that morality has been essentially solved, and all that’s left is to work out the details.” Reactionaries see Republicans as Progressives, just lagging 10-20 years behind Democrats in their adoption of Progressive norms.”

Don’t know enough and kinda don’t care. FWIU the guy lost numerous times in court over the last 20 years. assuming he was right, which is probably not a bad assumption I will need to dig into it further when I have time, he has my possible support. But what little I’ve heard does not justify what I’ve seen. we need to respect the rule of law. The refrain of him and his supporters of “WE THE PEOPLE…yadda yadda yadda” Meeks me very suspicious. I don’t trust popularism. But came here tonight for my point below.

Agree with that part. Story played as I was typing post below. But still not eager to jump on this bandwagon. Something doesn’t smell right. But I haven’t invested the time to sort through the BS on either side.

That was my stance. I don’t know about the specifics yet. I can depend on the media to keep me as uninformed and confused as possible, just like with NSA stories. I’m going to read up on this. Bottom line right now is I don’t think BLM bothers to send that many assets without a strong case. Also, if BLM left without getting what they came for, I say that is an unprecedented move by the government and may in fact be a sign that the popularism that WTP mentions is widdling at the state’s legitimate power. Assuming they are within the law that is.

“It’s cool to have a low opinion of Americans–not its enemies. You (he’s speaking of academics and the media here) get paid to express such opinions because everyone around you thinks the same way. This is the cool creed: When bad things happen to America, think badly of Americans”

State representative Alvin Holmes (D) Montgomery, said republican lawmakers would support abortion if their daughters became pregnant by black men. Holmes later said he would offer $100,000 cash to anyone who could show “a whole bunch of whites” have adopted black children in Alabama.

Today at the state house, white parents who adopted mixed race or minority children said it’s time for Holmes to ‘pay up.’

Beverly Owings is an adoptive mother of a 13-year-old bi-racial daughter. “I would like for him to ‘man up.’ He’s made the statement. He needs to put his money where is mouth is.”

Mr. Bloomberg was introspective as he spoke, and seemed both restless and wistful. When he sat down for the interview, it was a few days before his 50th college reunion. His mortality has started dawning on him, at 72. And he admitted he was a bit taken aback by how many of his former classmates had been appearing in the “in memoriam” pages of his school newsletter.

But if he senses that he may not have as much time left as he would like, he has little doubt about what would await him at a Judgment Day. Pointing to his work on gun safety, obesity and smoking cessation, he said with a grin: “I am telling you if there is a God, when I get to heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close.

That’s NT. Jesus’ response to the apostles incredulity concerning rich peoples’ chances at getting into heaven (the same chance as a camel getting through a small gate). It’s the same part conveniently left out by liberals whenever they to shame the rich with the camel analogy.

The apostles had no money to begin with. Jesus did tell a rich man in the camel story to give away his money and follow him. The man refused. But this was, as in many cases with Jesus, his method of making a point. The point of course is that money is not the most important thing in the world. Neither does it damn a man to hell, as Jesus made clear with his follow-up statement.

What makes it so difficult for a man with money to enter heaven is the fact that they almost never have to think of God; many are not on the ropes. It’s easy to forget where we come from when we have it good.

Thoughts boys? This, as I see it, is the nut of what passes for philosophy these days. A bit long but read the links, etc. Funny thing is, I doubt even Woody Allen gets it.

Krugman’s been commenting on the work of Dan Kahan. Kahan’s a professor of law at Yale who writes a lot about “cultural cognition,” which is just the idea that individual people will tend to think, reason, and decide according to the patterns instilled in them by the cultural cohort within which they reside.

In other words, partisans tend to parrot like-minded partisans.

Although I’m sure it goes beyond actual political partisanship, to general social and philosophical outlook.

So Lesser Krugman, Ezra Klein, had written about this (himself getting big parts of it wrong, naturally), and then Paul Krugman wrote about Klein writing about it, and Krugman’s main complaint with Ezra Klein was that he hadn’t been partisan enough in his analysis.

Whereas Kahan describes cultural cognition as affecting, of course, both the left and right, Krugman insisted that No, it almost entirely affects the right, Becuz Theyre Dumb.

…

Kahan himself considered Krugman’s “empirical proof” that the left was less subject to the effects of cultural cognition (group think), and… laughed out loud.

TJ, Magus, you’ll be relieved to know that there is no NSA style spying on Russian citizens. Snowden asked Putin this directly on television and Putin said that such could not exist because it would be against the law. Thank God.

The only “deal” snowden deserves is the same one we’ve given other traitors on foreign soil. Granted it might be a bit diplomatically troublesome to send a drone into Russia, but it might make Putin think things over a bit more. You know, understand why Obama says he’s weak. But I amuse myself.

Putin’s an expert at putting hits out on those that irritate him.Just sprinkle some Polonium on Snowden’s sushi, just as Putin’s agents did with Litvenyenko. Putin should understand out position.

I mean, isn’t it enough that Snowden exposed to the world some of our most technical capabilities? Doesn’t it lead those who see the Mannings/Assanges/Snowdens as hero people to question motives when Snowden keeps getting on television like the hip star he is, with the grin, basically boasting about what he did, schmoozing with Putin?

Yet Mike asks if I have evidence that Snowden may have been recruited by Russian agents before he even worked for NSA. He worked for CIA and possessed a TS clearance before he was hired by NSA. He worked for NSA for three months. This is enough time to understand the system? BS.

All because NSA collects metadata–just like Facebook. Then the theoretical scenarios come out of the woodwork about how this can be misused. But try this: Don’t pay taxes for a decade. The IRS will seize your bank account and property without trial and without warrant. I’ve seen people lose their whole bank account with no trial at all.

–Says he broke both legs in a training accident while going through Special Forces indoctrination. Sure.

–Possibly posted under the name TheTrueHOOHA on Ars Technica, endorsing the US security apparatus.

Heard an interview with his in which he states that his ability to steal NSA data should lead people to fear the civilian contractor system. HE causes the problem and blames the contractor system, as if he had nothing to do with his own actions.

This guy has no credibility. Picked last in kickball and good with computers is a dangerous combination.

While that may be true, I think we should be able to discern what got out based on what snowden had access to. Not sure snowden knows the breadth of that data. A little .45 caliber cranial lead poisoning OTOH, would give future espionage candidates something to think about.

Yeah I saw this. This is all masterful work by the Russians. Many Americans will believe everything Putin says. They already believe what Snowden says. Oh but Snowden just wanted to help Americans. Sure. Probably got paid a couple million by the Russian oligarchy, plus the information the Russians got on NSA technology and techniques are allowing them to circumvent detection in much of their recent activities in Ukraine.

We need more people in government that are cynical about the rest of the world and less so about America. What happened to politicians who are American nationalists. I used to be a nationalist, but I don’t even know what we represent anymore. A mob led by vote harvesters selling the country out from under us.

Eastern Connecticut State University Professor Brent Terry’s remarks during a creative writing class won bipartisan disapproval Tuesday from the state House of Representatives.

According to little over a minute of audio shared with Campus Reform by a student, Terry said that if the Republican Party took over the Senate in 2014 then “colleges will start closing up if these people have their way.”

Terry went on to say that “there are a lot of people out there that do not want black people to vote, do not want Latinos to vote. Do not want old people to vote, or young people to vote. Because generally, people like you are liberal.”

Well exactly. How was he to know? After all, it’s not illegal to tattoo “MURDER” on your neck. But he lived “in the moment”. There’s something to be said for that. At this point, why change philosophies? Dance with the one that brung ya, I always say.

True. And just like they told me 4 years later, if you vote for John McCain Gitmo will continue to inspire terrorism, we will continue to get involved in Middle East wars and politics, and all sorts of terrible things would continue. They were right about that too.

The shoe hasn’t dropped yet, but in the next few months or years, big, successful corporations in the S&P500 are likely to do the unthinkable — stop offering employer sponsored health insurance to their employees.

Why? The combination of penalties imposed by ObamaCare on so-called “Cadillac plans” as well as potential savings are impossible to ignore if you’re in the C-suite and responsible to investors. A new report by S&P Capital IQ shows exactly why companies can’t resist shifting the burden of providing health care to the feds. The report says:

By shifting insurance to the employee, the Affordable Care Act presents an opportunity for U.S. companies to radically redefine the role they play in the health care system.
The ACA could save S&P 500 companies nearly $700 billion through 2025, about 4 percent of those companies’ current market capitalization.
If all U.S. companies with 50 or more employees made the switch, the total savings to businesses could be as high as $3.25 trillion through 2025.
The shift benefits employers the most as the government and consumers take on a larger funding role.

I like many aspects of Obamacare, such as the attempt to separate insurance from employment. I would like to see a health care system entirely independent from employment, thus removing the cost from the employer (although they should be free to offer coverage as part of the compensation to attract and keep workers). However, this cost shift needs to come with a reduction in medical costs. I think you would agree that medical costs are needlessly high in the United States (ironically partially due to insurance).

I also like the fact that people cannot be refused coverage for pre-existing conditions and that kids can stay on their parents plans longer.

A civilized country should have effective, affordable and universally available coverage for all citizens. Even under Obamacare we don’t have that.

Sadly, we are in a situation where no actual alternative (except going back to the past) has been seriously offered.

Ron Paul, who’s doctor (so he knows) explains it was better the way it was–the free market. Poor people could get care on charity–they turned no one down.

But u, Mike, want to make it, health-care, some formalized, complexified thing–as usual for people like u who think u have a right to meddle in things that are NONE OF UR BUSINESS, using gov. to dictate to people on pretext of ur absurd, childish whims.

Purpose of ObongoCare is mass-murder and genocide–but that’s inconceivable to a cocooned “intellectual” (really, just a glorified mystic and sooth-sayer), ho ho ho ho–official thought-controller and obedience-trainer, selling inferiority complex and Pharisaism upon false pretenses of “ethics.”

What’s happening is Insurance and big Pharma corps. are taking-over, all w. the help of morons and ignorant scum. And obvious FACT is costs are going up directly due to these latest ObongoCare law(s), and quality of care is going down.

So now, Prof. Mike, w. ObongoCare, we’ll have death-panels and instead of person-to-person relation of doctor and patient–the people will just be dispensed w. DRUGS that are un-tested and toxic which will kill them quicker–this is what’s GUARANTEED–all part of AGENDA-21 genocide. Great work, buddy. Just as “good” is worst enemy of truth, we see it’s also worst enemy of people’s practical lives too, eh? Ever see the movie, Soylent Green?–a classic w. Charlton Heston.

That is just money coming out of your pay either way. Though Mike doesn’t think this way, unless it’s convenient for him, like this issue. The real problem with this scenario, and it has been one of the great injustices of the healthcare mess going back decades, is that the corporations get to write healthcare expenses off their taxes. Individuals cannot unless the expense hits a significant percentage of their income.

Removing the connection twixt employment and healthcare could be the only good thing to come out of this mess. But it’s going to be painful, cause much disruption in care, and will be demogoged to death by GOP and Dem populists. It will be ugly.

Well, yeah. Because the long term plan of the obos is to attach healthcare ( and we really should be more careful using terms healthcare and insurance, but here I do mean healthcare) to the government. Hence the euphanism of “single payer” Obama has said is his goal.

Assuming the numbers are accurate, the $3.25 trillion assumes that every business over 49 employees makes the switch. It would also assume that the companies would not offer other compensation.

But, to answer the question, if every company with 49+ employees ceased to provide health care and did not offer any replacement compensation, then that would presumably be bad.

However, I still favor splitting health care from employment. I do not get auto insurance or homeowner’s insurance from my employer and I can handle that. One key part of the problem is that health care is exceptionally expensive as is the insurance. Managing health care costs would seem to be the proper place to focus. If this could be done, the cost of health insurance could be significantly lower and people could better afford health care and insurance.

Part of the problem is also the fact that wages have not kept up with costs. If the middle class was better off, they could better afford care and insurance. So, getting the economy to benefit the middle class would have a positive impact as well. The Canadians are beating us, which should bother us a bit.

Make no mistake: ObongoCare means DEATH PANELS, least expensive “treatment” by big-Pharma owned and controlled facilities, these controlled by the insurance companies, obviously, who control the finances & administration of such facilities, and instead of doctor’s care and treatment, u’re gonna get DRUGS, drugs, drugs, as ur treatment–which will cost more than what it used to.

Bergdahl’s story, before being revealed, must be given every twisted benefit of doubt relative to that of the men with whom he served, direct observations of his words and actions by his platoon mates, and the words presented by his father on numerous videos. Why, it’s like he’s being Swiftboated!. Of course all of this is completely in harmony with how the George Zimmerman case was and continues to be addressed by both the media and the douche bag(s) in the White House. Repeating myself, I know.

Wanna make a wager no one will ever go? Wanna wager I can’t find a college professor and/or journalist somewhere in the next few weeks who will pick at some irrelevant detail to explain it all away? No way to bet on this, but if the parties were reversed I am VERY confident the media, SNL, professors like Mike, etc. etc. etc. would be on this story 24/7 for weeks if not months. How much airtime and newspaper print was spent on Christie Bridgegate?

Democratic gubernatorial nominee Ed FitzGerald had not had a regular Ohio driver’s license for at least five years when Westlake police found him in a car with a woman early one morning two years ago.

If he drove his car home after dropping her off at her hotel, as he said he did, he would have violated Ohio law requiring those with just a temporary permit to be accompanied by a licensed driver.

According to records at the state Bureau of Motor Vehicles, FitzGerald, a Democrat running against Republican Gov. John Kasich, held only temporary driving permits in 2008-09, 2010-11 and 2011-12 before getting a regular driver’s license on Nov. 15, 2012.

FitzGerald and the woman in his car, Joanne Grehan, an economic-development representative from Ireland, were found by a Westlake police officer sitting and talking in FitzGerald’s car in a parking lot at 4:30 a.m. on Oct. 13, 2012.

It’s unclear why FitzGerald, a former FBI agent and assistant county prosecutor who was the mayor of Lakewood from 2008 to 2011 and has been the Cuyahoga County executive since then, did not have a regular driver’s license during that time. Bureau of Motor Vehicles records go back to 2007.

The most cynical of these bogey man ploys is Attorney General Holder’s threats of legal action against schools that discipline a “disproportionate” number of black boys. Unless you believe that black boys cannot possibly be misbehaving more often than Asian American girls, what does this political numbers game accomplish?

It creates another racial grievance, allowing Democrats like Holder to pose as rescuers of blacks from racist dangers. The real danger is allowing disruptive students in ghetto schools to destroy the education of other black students — in a world where education is the only hope that most ghetto youngsters have for a better life.